Copies of John Steinbeck's novels sit on the shelves at the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas. / Travis Geske/The Salinas Californian

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Salinas Californian

In rental cars and plush buses, they arrive in town. Tourists from around the world file into the Steinbeck House Restaurant, 132 Central Ave. There they gawk and gaze then sit down to a plate of East of Eden Pasta, perhaps, or the restaurant specialty, Poulet de Broccoli.

Though from abroad, many are life-long fans of the Salinas Noble Prize for Fiction Winner. Steinbeck fans come to Salinas from South Africa, Australia, Japan, Russia, Norway, Vietnam and others. They come to see the old Victorian Steinbeck house, to look at the author’s personal items such as his silver baby cup, his harmonica and his thick-rimmed reading glasses.

Then the visitors settle in to absorb the author’s spirit which seems to linger through time.

“Being here is an emotional experience for many of our foreign guests,” said Toni Bernardi, president of the nonprofit Valley Guild which owns the Steinbeck House and runs its restaurant.

“For them, this house is a life-long destination,” Bernardi said. “A lot get so emotional, they cry.”

That emotion comes from the power of much of Steinbeck’s literature to tap into the lives of ordinary people surviving, often near the edges of poverty, and to express their struggle, Bernardi said.

Every year tourists from other countries visit Salinas. This year, through May, 16,000 people visited. Sixty percent of those were from other countries, estimates Trish Triumpho Sullivan with Destination Salinas, 222 Main St. Last year, visitors from 27 countries signed their names in the Steinbeck House guest book, Bernardi said. (Visitors from 40 U.S. states were represented that same year.)

Tourists from overseas are drawn to Salinas by the Steinbeck House and by the National Steinbeck Center. That’s all well and good, Sullivan said.

“Steinbeck is the main draw,” she said. “Our job is to educate visitors about other wonderful things they can also do while here.”

Such as wine tastings, for example. Sullivan answers questions on wine tasting in the valley and provides maps to the wineries.

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“Visitors say, ‘If we’d known you had such good wines here, we wouldn’t have driven to Napa,’” she said.

She provides brochures on other Salinas area attractions, too – The Western Stage, for one, or Wild Things, Vision Quest Ranch, or to the John Cerney Murals and the Pinnacles National Monument. Same for the California Welcome Center Salinas, 1213 North Davis Rd. Foreigners who stop by that center leave armed with brochures to include directions to the Steinbeck Center and Steinbeck House. The center maintains a map with gold stars indicating where visitors come from. Stars cover the earth.

Foreign tourists, in general, tend to outspend more than homegrown ones, some $342 per day to $210 per day, Sullivan said.

Back in Steinbeck House, a Dane named Bjarne Nielsen Broast entered the waiting room. Broast has had more than a passing interest in Steinbeck.

“My grandmother gave me novels, like ‘The Red Pony,’ when I was growing up,” he said.

Novels by Steinbeck and by other formidable writers such as Hemingway inspired Broast to become an author himself. He writes short novels but also books about famous artists and authors.

A group of South Korean journalists also visited the Steinbeck House recently. Several met Carol Robles of Salinas. A local Steinbeck historian, Robles has lectured on Steinbeck in Russia, Japan and Mexico as well as in the United States.

The Japanese are among the most serious of Steinbeck fans and have had a John Steinbeck society reaching back 35 years-plus, she said. During her 30-plus years studying mostly the facts of Steinbeck’s life, Robles has connected with others sharing her interest to include one woman with a doctorate in Steinbeck literature in Slovenia. Another contact is a college professor in India.

Whatever the nationality of visitors, curiosity about the writer, to include his personal life, seems endless, Robles said.

“We get questions like: ‘Did he drink too much (No)? Were his parents rich? Why did so many Salinas locals dislike him?’ “ she said.

Foreign tourists often stop at the Steinbeck House first, eat lunch, then head for the center and later take a stroll through Oldtown. Others take the opposite route.

“Our foreign visitors help make things so much more exciting, and it’s interesting to talk with them,” Bernardi said. “They’re grateful to us for preserving this house. They’re so appreciative.”

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